Beer cans on the floor. Dirty sheets piled to the ceiling. Bare mattresses with sleeping bodies. Work-in-progress maintenance that's been in progress for who knows how long?!

Is this a student dorm? Or perhaps a squat house? No, it's a sorry excuse for a hostel! Clearly nobody cares... anymore! The reviews were good though. This was supposed to be the place to be! But clearly something fundamental had changed...

We arrived in town at 5:30am in the dark. The public bus into the town centre arrived just as it started to rain. Beyond the city walls was the main plaza where we found the hostel. The best location in town! But when we asked to see the rooms they said had none available yet. We'd have to wait until people check out at 11am. Fair enough! As we waited and had a look around it dawned upon us just as the day was dawning

With second thoughts clouding our minds, we set off to explore the town and check out a few alternatives. They were either poorly ventilated, totally dead or absurdly overpriced. Plus we'd already seen most of the town - the churches, the plazas, the market, the grey sea. It was a nice enough town but in comparison to Zacatecas and Guanajuato, it was rather lacklustre.

Not much keeping us here then...

Our tummies were grumbling so we joined the churchgoers outside the main church for fish empanadas (pies) and arroz con leche (rice pudding) between their 7am and 9am masses. That was for starters. For mains we stopped at a fast food joint that seemed popular with the locals for really cheap tortas. 2 more hours had passed.

Time to head back, guess we'll have to settle for Monkey Hostel. Or do we? *taps lip with forefinger*

. One took the time to ramble off a long list of complaints to a disinterested staff member. He just stared back at her blankly and didn't even bother to respond. I didn't catch all the Spanish but it was something about the toilet not flushing and no hot water in the shower. In the end she threw her hands in the air in despair and left.

A Chinese-German student who was also checking out confirmed that the hostel leaves much to be desired. Apparently the staff had a private party in one of the vacant rooms the night before. They were all hungover and hadn't done any cleaning since she'd been there. We suspect the owner was away, so the tweenies staff members could play.